Great success for the Pole to Pole Campaign!

The end of the summer season also marks the end of our participation to the "Pole to Pole" Campaign launched by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria earlier this year.

Thanks to the many visitors who visited the booth set up in the zoo during the summer, we raised about €10,000! We wish to warmly thank all of you who committed to the preservation of the polar world by buying stuffed polar animals or key-rings, by putting coins in our giant moneybox or by learning about the effect of global warming when discussing with our staff.

We decided to share the amount raised between two organizations that work to preserve two emblematic polar species: the polar bear and the penguin.

Created in 2002 by Robert W. and Carolyn Buchanan, Polar Bear International is the world leader in the conservation of polar bears and their habitat. PBI is dedicated to fund and conduct scientific research contributing to the survival of polar bears, to develop awareness programs and tools consituting reference ressources on the species status in the wild and to encourage individuals, communities and policy makers to take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gases for the conservation of polar bear habitat.
Our donation will help funding a survey of the polar bear movement in Hudson Bay, Canada (which is home to nearly 1/3 of the polar bear world population) in order to observe a large sample of the population in a short period of time (during ice breackup and freeze-up) and thus to see its change. Satellite collars are also regularly put on adult females in order to assess how the population is faring, how it uses its habitat, time spent in water and the survival of the cubs. The Polar Bear Tracker Map on PBI website allows users to follow the collared bears and get basic information about each of them.

We've been supporting the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) since 2009. Although primarily focusing on black-footed penguin conservation, SANCCOB is also mandated to rescue and treat seabirds affected by oil pollution along the South African coastline as well as into the rest of Africa, the Indian Ocean and Sub-antarctica Islands.
All penguins species are in decline, threatened by global warming, pollution, disease and overfishing. By rehabilitating oiled penguins, by raising the chicks abandoned by their parents and introducing them back to the wild, SANCCOB helps improving the health and conservation of penguins and seabirds. Its education programs also aim to raise awareness about the plight of these birds, the conservation of marine ecosystems and the fight against pollution.